Autonomous vehicles that are being developed are making possible new designs that may allow new seating arrangements. For example, the front seat passenger or driver may position the front seat to face rearwardly to provide a face-to-face seating arrangement with rear seat passengers. Such an arrangement would make conversation easier and facilitate interacting with children in the back seat. In addition to potential changes in seating arrangements, new approaches to facilitating ingress and egress to the passenger compartment are being developed.
The new vehicle designs are expected to be required to meet the same vehicle tests as developed for conventional vehicles and will also be subject to new tests. One test is a test of a rocker assembly in a side impact with a pole. In conventional vehicle designs that include a B-pillar disposed at an intermediate location on each side of the vehicle between the front and rear doors, the B-pillar functions to minimize intrusion into the passenger compartment in side impacts with a pole. Greater intrusions into the passenger compartment in a side impact with a pole test are predicted based upon computer aided design tests if the B-pillar is removed from the sides of the vehicle. In addition, load paths developed for vehicles having a B-pillar are inadequate for vehicle designs that eliminate the pillar between the front and rear doors.
This disclosure is directed to solving the above problems and other problems as summarized below.